1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a technique for remotely controlling an image forming apparatus in an environment in which a function provided by the image forming apparatus can be used via a network.
2. Description of the Related Art
An image forming apparatus such as a copying machine and a printer used in an office is provided with various functions. The functions provided for the image forming apparatus, for example, include a scan function, a facsimile function, and a transmission function of specifying an address and transmitting data. In addition to the above, there is a function of converting scanned data to a portable document format (PDF) or to a desired page description language (PDL) format in printing.
Conventionally, a system has been known which detects a failure occurring when the function provided for such an image forming apparatus is used and notifies a management server on a network of the failure. The management server performs processing, such as storage processing, analysis processing, and notification processing to a user, with respect to the notified information. Another system has been discussed in which a management server issues an instruction to an image forming apparatus based on device information including management information and operation information of the image forming apparatus (refer to Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2008-210103, for example). The management information may include information about a network and a model of the image forming apparatus. The operation information may include information about failure and a counter in the image forming apparatus.
It is assumed that at least a part of the above-described functions provided for the image forming apparatus is arranged on the server on the Internet. The image forming apparatus accesses the server via a communication line to use the function arranged on the server, so that the image forming apparatus can use the functions which are not provided for the own apparatus. If the function of converting scanned data to the PDF format is arranged on the network, for example, the following processing can be presumed. Scanning is performed by the image forming apparatus in an office and data are transmitted to the server on the network via the communication line. Then, the server on the network converts the transmitted data to the PDF format and transmits the converted data to the image forming apparatus in the office. Accordingly, the image forming apparatus can acquire the scanned data in the PDF format. The introduction of such a system enables a user to freely use a desired function if the image forming apparatus has a function of communicating with the network and can improve the convenience. Further such system can eliminate the need for an operation that an image forming apparatus provided with a specific function is installed in the office and shared by a plurality of users. Furthermore, the system can solve an issue that the resource (a hard disk (HDD), a memory, and others) in the image forming apparatus runs short.
However, a conventional management system discussed in Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2008-210103 can deal with failure occurred in the image forming apparatus but cannot recognize a defect or failure occurred in an external device such as a server that provides a function for the image forming apparatus. For example, if the user finds any defect while using the function provided on the network by the image forming apparatus, the user may think the defect is caused in the image forming apparatus. It is presumed that, if a defect occurs when the image forming apparatus tries to use the function provided on the network, the image forming apparatus itself notifies the management server of the defect. The management server cannot determine whether the defect is caused in the image forming apparatus or in an external device, but may handle the defect as that caused in the image forming apparatus in the worst-case scenario.
Here, the management server performs notification for dispatching a serviceperson for restoring a failure if the image forming apparatus managed thereby causes the failure. In the above-described case, the management server dispatches the serviceperson to a location where the image forming apparatus, which does not cause a failure, is installed. Such operation may cause a wasteful dispatching cost. In case that an external device on the network has any problem, if the management server could notify a maintenance engineer for the external device of the problem at the point when the management server recognizes the problem, a quick recovery can be realized.
Consequently, a flexible mechanism is demanded which can identify where a failure occurs and dispatch a serviceperson appropriate for the failure corresponding to an environment surrounding the image forming apparatus.